Dulac musician says he's ‘blessed' to be cancer-free

Wednesday

Mar 27, 2013 at 6:00 AM

Charlie Duthu feels blessed these days.

Thad AngellozCorrespondent

Charlie Duthu feels blessed these days.The 65-year-old singer from Dulac started a battle with throat cancer in early 2012, with doctors telling him he would never talk — or sing — again. However, the front man for the local band Treater said he’s still whaling on the washboard and hitting high notes at area performances after being declared cancer-free — twice — once in March of last year and again this month after the cancer had returned.“There’s so many people that have been so good to me. It is amazing,” he said. “I’m a blessed man.”According to Duthu, his troubles began a little over a year ago when the longtime lead singer of the Treater Band noticed some problems with his voice.These difficulties prompted a visit to a doctor in early January of last year. It was there they discovered Duthu had a large cancerous growth near his vocal chords. After having his case referred to M.D. Anderson in Houston, doctors eventually sent him home to begin an aggressive chemotherapy regime that lasted seven weeks.“It wasn’t easy,” Duthu said. “I wouldn’t wish that on anyone because it made me so sick, but I got through it.”Duthu said he returned to M.D. Anderson where a doctor stuck a tube down his throat to look around for the growth.“I’ll never forget it,” he said. “He looked at me and said, ‘I can’t find it. It’s gone!’ ”Against the doctor’s advice for an additional round of treatment, Duthu decided to take his chances believing he had beat his cancer for good.“A couple of months later the cancer was back,” Duthu said. “It was at that point I decided to return to M.D. Anderson and let them do whatever they thought I needed to get me better.”Duthu’s treatment featured proton radiation. While a previous bout with cancer in lymph nodes precluded him from traditional radiation, this type of radiation was OK because it targeted a much smaller area.“This is when I got a miracle,” Duthu said. “I was told that my insurance probably wouldn’t cover it, but they did. Most of the time you have to pay out-of-pocket for what was done to me, but luckily, that didn’t happen.”During his treatment cycle, he once again started to struggle through sickness to the point where he turned his burdens over to Christ.“I basically gave it to him and said, ‘Lord, do whatever you want.’ I left it to him to either cure me, or if that didn’t happen, I was OK with it,” Duthu said.In early March of this year, Duthu received the best news he could have when his scans revealed his cancer was gone.“I prayed a lot for the doctors to guide them through this,” he said. “I owe them a lot, but they only practice on you. It is God who makes the decisions on what truly happens to you.”Without his family and friends praying for him, Duthu said he’s doubtful he would have pulled through his cancer.“They made all the difference in the world for me,” he said. With a new lease on life, Duthu has stepped away from being an active member of Treater, but he knows the invitation is always there if he wants to rejoin his former group for any of its regular shows.“You know, I actually did a benefit not too long ago for a guy in Gheens going through cancer,” Duthu said. “I did four songs. For two of them I did good, but the other two were tough to get through. The toughest thing about it is I don’t want to slow them down, so that’s why I’m not doing much with them these days.”Treater’s band leader, Calvin Parfait, said the band isn’t the same without Duthu but has continued moving forward in his absence because that’s what Duthu wants.Treater has even booked a time slot at the upcoming New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.“He doesn’t do as much anymore, but he’s a guy who is part of the heart and soul that is the Treater Band,” Parfait said. “The best thing right now is he doesn’t have the cancer anymore, and that is what everyone is focusing on.”Duthu said he doesn’t know what the future holds but is currently focused on spending time with his family in Baton Rouge and testifying for others about what he went through.“I know I want to give back in some way, and testifying is something I feel the Lord has called me to do,” he said.

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